At least the pin-off show now feels like it’s properly earning its title, with three Originals in the cast: Holt joins Joseph Morgan as Klaus and Daniel Gillies as Elijah.

Also in the cast are Phoebe Tonkin as werewolf Hayley, Daniella Pineda and Danielle Campbell as witches Sophie and Davina, Michael Davis as Marcel (Klaus’s former protegee, so presumably a vampire) and Leah Pipes as a human psychology student.

The format for The Originals will be set up in an episode of The Vampire Diaries , which will broadcast on 25 April in the the States, and which will serve as a kind of back-door pilot for the spin-off.

In the episode, which has been written by The Vampire Diaries executive producer Julie Plec, Klaus returns to the French Quarter of New Orleans, a supernatural melting pot that he helped build centuries ago, and is reunited with the wild, wicked and bold Marcel, who now calls the shots in the area. Intent on helping his self-destructive brother find redemption, Elijah must side with Marcel’s enemies to keep Klaus in line.